Recent Earthquakes Linked to Solar Effects on Earth’s Magnetic Field

Sunday, April 4th of this year, would’ve been like any other day - except that there was an unusual earthquake under West Virginia early that morning. The next day an explosion rocked the coal mine in the near-quake zone, possibly caused by built-up toxic gasses enriched by the quake. Twenty-nine miners lost their lives.

As far as blame goes, all eyes are on the mining company. Yes, Massey Mining carried some violations, and those violations - specifically those related to gas venting - may have played a role in the mine tragedy. But why no mention in the mainstream media of the earthquake near Gassaway and the Massey mine the day before the explosion? Is the correspondence between seismic and solar activity being deliberately ignored or downplayed, despite spikes in seismic activity around 4 April 2010, the day of the West Virginia temblor and the Baja California quake?

These notable earthquakes were accompanied by an exceptionally strong solar wind which impacted Earth’s magnetosphere just before daylight hours on the 5th in North America, and “sparked the strongest geomagnetic storm of the year,” according to Spaceweather.com’s archives. Might this strong solar wind have precipitated seismic activity by its impact on the planet’s geomagnetic field and kinetic molten magnetic core?

Spaceweather’s auroral oval graphic makes it easy to observe the gyrations of Earth’s fluxing magnetic fields and make connections between Sun and Earth activity. The northern auroral oval was both inflamed and lopsided around the time of the West Virginia and the Mexicali quakes. The bright orange stretching equatorward indicates that our planet’s magnetosphere is being pommelled with solar wind. I suspect Earth’s iron core is spinning more freely due to its recent relative slumber, and reacting more vigourously to the Sun’s magnetic influences than a decade or two ago.

In other words, the planet’s poles have limbered up to the point that humans - among Earth’s most notorious freeloaders - may be thrown from the surface by a sudden worldwide jolt that one-ups recent seismic outbursts. Readily available numbers give a general feel for what’s going on. While I’m unsure of the implications of all the information I gather, I’m finding that increased solar wind combined with lower particle density seems to create marked instability in Earth’s crust and correspondingly-increased seismicity.

Now for some technical information, which needs to be understood in a certain context, which I’ll explain briefly: The US Geological Survey posts magnitude 1+ USA quakes for the past week here, and world quakes of 4.5+ (including US quakes 2.5+) on a separate map here.

A few weeks ago, on the morning of 25 March, 2010, there were 850 quakes on the US map, and 212 on the world map. At the same time, I noticed Yellowstone was acting up again with a minor swarm. By the 5th - the day after the West Virginia quake associated with the underground explosion at Massey Mine near Gassaway - the US registered a pretty strong 1313, and the world number jumped to 638.

During the last week, with Earth in the path of a strong solar windstream, the number of earthquakes grew remarkably: 2965 in the US and 1269 on the world map, as of 9 PM on Thursday, the 8th of April, 2010. Friday the 9th I saw there are 3091 earthquakes on the USA map and 1307 on the world map. While some of these represent aftershocks from the Mexicali 7.2, that’s still a pretty rapid jump. Numbers continued to grow daily until the past 24 hours or so.

Observing a trend between the intensity and irregularity of the auroral oval, combined with solar activity and Earth’s seismic activity, may lead to better predictive capacities toward what seem to be Earth-based phenomena, but is really the result of a blending solar and planetary energies. Of what value, however, is the prediction if most people can’t comprehend it, let alone feel compelled to take action? Even if forewarned of the possibility of massive, imminent Earth changes linked with flaring outbursts of 2012-era Sun rhythms, would most people have the capacity to process that information? Might panic ensue?

A CME impacted Earth a couple of days ago, and the Sun is growing quiet once again. This evening, Tuesday 13 April 2010, earthquake numbers are gradually receding like the tide from the shore.

As Spaceweather frequently advises, “Monitoring is encouraged.”

STACE TUSSEL

NOTE:
Here’s a link to an abstract investigating a possible connection between earthquakes and explosive gas emissions into coal mines.

“Is the correspondence between seismic and solar activity being deliberately ignored or downplayed,”

Oddly enough, I find that most reporters/journalists aren’t among the most well informed or curious individuals. Nor do most of them have a lot of time or desire to research a story that probably seems very open and shut to someone who doesn’t have your insight.

I don’t think that most people are even aware that the sun has a direct electromagnetic relationship with the Earth. They know the sun shines, but as far as being part of highly structured and evolving system that impacts earth quakes, weather, electronics and almost all life, not so much.

That’s why I like it so much when you do this kind of post. Even I never understood the geological impact before you started writing about it.

Thanks to Chris at Wildrote: What you have written speaks directly to the reason I make these posts. I’m pleased to know some eyes are gradually opening to “new” realities!

In reply to Gustav: I have made some attempts to figure that out, but so far have been unable to find a definitive way to effectively link up earthquakes of mag 6.0+ and solar activity specifics. The USGS site is helpful for current information, as is Spaceweather.com (although their daily archives only go back one decade), but I can’t find a time-effective way to correlate all the information. If anyone has a relatively simple way to correlate information, or better yet, if someone already has done so, I would love to examine the data more closely. I have read summaries of abstracts that link solar extremes with seismic activity (See notes for my article “Link Between Solar Activity and Earthquakes at http://www.inter-intelligence-communications.com/?p=1103).

Hey Stace : Another enlightening and well written Post. I swear you are sharing my mind. I have been meaning to write a similar post with the same illustration that you used but you beat me to it !
There’s nothing I can add to this except -
It would be usefull to make long term and short term history of tectonic events (earthquake and volcanic) and solar activity.
I suspect greatest activity occurs at the point of greatest solar change - ie. a greater gradient, as things slow or speed up & when they reach a maximum in activity.

Keep up the great work. Maybe we can prod a few people with reputations and public personas to take this more seriously.

Stace, you made some great connections there and I find it difficult to believe that there aren’t more scientists exploring the link between the sun, the earth’s magnetic field and an increase in earthquakes. Seems to be beyond the realm of chance and way more than a coincidence! Spaceweather.com is one of my favorites sites and now that you’ve piqued my curiosity, I’m gonna to explore this link further!!!! By the way, I miss our emails….It’s been way too long!

hi i have been looking into solar activity causing increased seismic activity and have found a small limk especially this year on the 3rd of april 2010 there was a solar flare that had the same amount of energy that the whole human population uses within a year. This reached us on 5th april 2010 which i believe caused significant seismic activity in alaska (redoubt volcano) as well as there being a mag 7.2 in mexico on that day. I do think that this should be looked into more as we may not be able to prevent any seismic activity at least if there is a link then we maybe able to warn communities surround major fault lines etc. what do you think?

Everyone (including David, who just made a comment to a post I made in January): Thanks for your thoughtful feedback on the solar/seismic link. The Sun is blank today - no sunspots on the Earth-facing side - and, no surprise, the USGS World and US Maps are also showing a dwindling number of earthquakes. The China quake seems to have released some energy from stressed faults, but more pertinent to world news today is the rather surprising quake activity over the past month in Iceland and the associated volcanic eruption and devastating ash pollution which is impacting everyone in some way. As we follow this story and its developments in the coming days, weeks, months, and possibly years, may provide more of a wake up call to those who haven’t yet made the connection between solar activity and geomagnetically-induced seismicity and volcanism. I agree that while we may not be able to prevent large-scale devastation, warning systems can be of limited use. And I suspect the reason - or part of the reason - why this link is not being “officially researched” or publicised is because the cause and effect scenario in question is something over which we humans have no real control.

Hi Stace
What do you mean by ‘not being officially researched because the cause and effect scenario is something over which we humans have no real control’?
That hasn’t prevented research into atomic or quantum theory, or in tsunami warning systems despite the fact billions of people still live in coastal regions.

Regardless, it’s an interesting hypothesis, and if there is a scientific reason why this isn’t being investigated more, I certainly don’t know about it. Maybe your train of thought is just more original than you think..

Hey Stace - you hit the nail on the head, again, as usual ! I think you are right - this is being ignored likely, because we have no control over the activity of the sun. I also believe that the sun predominately drives climate and that, the lack of control is why this model of climate is not being widely acknowledged or research funded.

But inevitably, we will have to wake up and see that we live in a dynamic solar system/galaxy/universe and that our planet changes in response to larger scale changes. We can still live with that knowldge but it will mean governments will have to relinquish some control and be more open and transparent.

[...] from the Sun have a specific effect on the geophysical activity of the Earth (blogged about here, here, and discussed in this PDF, a publication in IEEE (the journal of Institute of Electrical and [...]

Just wanted to state that on 3/10-11/2001, we had a very large CME that literally “shook earth’s magnetic field-see http://www.spaceweather.com for article this morning. Possible effect on Japan earthquake yesterday? Also, take a look a the earthquakes on the Japan fault zone on the USGS global earthquake site. The quakes started off the coast on 3-9, increased rapidly on 3-10, then the big one on 3-11, all within the parameters of the discussion above and solar CME impacting earth’s mag. field. Very interesting also is the fact that the Full moon (full on 3-18) will be the closest to earth (distance) than in the last 18 years, of course causing additional disruption of the gravity fields.

PS- It could become more complicated considering the solar system also has a magnetosphere (of sorts), which can also be affected by things outside of our solar system.
And, possibly another piece of the puzzle ( I do emphasize, POSSIBLY on this one, because it is not currently accepted by mainstream scientists):http://binaryresearchinstitute.org/
50″ arc second progression of the equinox due to a binary system is certainly an interesting “Theory” if not a good plausible explaination ;).
A very complicated business predicting EQ’s, all things considered :)!

Hello All, Where do I start, first, I have no detailed background in these matters, only the study of Prophecy which lead me to this site. Along the way I’ve discovered that the Sun will soon enter its Red Giant Phase. I knew nothing of these matters until I read where the moon will be turned to blood, only in color. Then I asked myself, why would the moon be red? The answer is because it is reflecting a Red Sun. With the post on this site, we began to see the evidence of this everyday.

It’s not solar effects thats effecting the magnetic field, we’ve been pelted by this solar radiation for a long time, you should peek out into space more. Something else is tugging on us just like it tugs on another planet or celestial body.